2000 AD Covers Uncovered: ‘Dive into the spooky stuff inside’ with Nick Percival’s Prog 2384 cover!
29th May 2024
Every week, 2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s greatest artwork and 2000 AD Covers Uncovered takes you behind-the-scenes with the headline artists responsible for our top cover art – join bloggers Richard Bruton and Pete Wells as they uncover the greatest covers from 2000 AD!
Another zarjaz Nick Percival cover this week for the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2384, Earthlets, with Dredd stalking through the undercity in search of Iron Teeth…
We’re up to part three of the six-part Judge Dredd: Iron Teeth by Ken Niemand and Nick Percival, and Dredd’s deep in the undercity looking for those juves who’ve got themselves mixed up with the nightmarish urban legend made oh so real, Iron Teeth. And if you’re talking nightmarish, there’s few artists out there who do it as well as Nick does!
Nick apologises for this one being a bit of a quickie, but that’s because he was busy stealing a moment from Tharg to answer a few interview questions for us about this latest Dredd series, his art, and what it’s like to be bringing the horror to Dredd! So we’ll forgive him that. Tharg though? Well, our Betelgeusian boss might not be so forgiving and then Nick’s really going to experience a nightmare all his own!
Okay then, without further ado… Nick Percival…
NICK PERCIVAL: We’re hitting the middle of the story, so time to finally get a clear reveal of Dredd’s new nemesis, Iron Teeth.
I wanted a big, punchy close-up of the creature’s face, leaving nothing to the imagination and here he is. Of course, we need Dredd on there too, so the the image was always going to be a montage piece with Dredd on the hunt in the foreground and Iron Teeth’s ugly mug taking up the lion’s share of the piece.
As with all my cover roughs, everything is very loose, just to get the idea down quick and give Tharg an idea of what he’ll be getting.
I wanted a very different colour palette from Part 1’s cover, so went for blues as the dominant colour. Since Iron Teeth is a supernatural being, the plan was to give it a slightly hazy, mystical feel, with the swirling blue mist and so on.
Hopefully it stands out on the shelves and makes you want to dive into the spooky stuff inside…
And that’s it folks! Short but sweet… well, not sweet so much as a hideous vision of what Dredd’s having to deal with right now, but you get the idea!
Thanks so much to Nick for taking the time and sending the art over for this one. You can find it out right now everywhere Thrill Power is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.
As for more of Nick’s Covers Uncovered work, there’s plenty to be looking at – start off with the most recent, his intro to Iron Teeth on the wrapround cover of Prog 2382 and then take a look at these – Prog 2247, Megazine 425, Megazine 427, Megazine 430, Megazine 433, Megazine 430, Megazine 443, Megazine 448, Megazine 453, Megazine 456, and Megazine 458.
We’ve also interviewed Nick a few times – he talks about finishing six years worth of work on the Dark Judges work here and we’ve talked to Nick and Dark Judges’ writer David Hine about two Dark Judges storylines – Deliverance here and Death Metal Planet here. And finally, Molch-R talks to Hine and Percival about all things Dark Judges in the 2000 AD Thrill-Cast Lockdown Tapes here.
Finally, as has become a thing now, time to zoom in to that fabulously horrific artwork to really send a shiver down your spine…
